Democratic odds of winning the open Senate seat in Florida go up significantly if the Republican nominee is not Gov. Charlie Crist.
Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio is also in the race, and preparing to run to the right of Crist, who is what passes for a moderate in today's Republican Party. And Florida establishment conservatives are already lining up behind Rubio, including one of the state's most prominent politicians, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
Apparently, the "successful" conservative torpedoing of Arlen Specter is serving as a model for would-be Crist-beaters:
"Specter has not changed on social issues for his entire career, and Pennsylvania Republican primary voters were OK with that; but the last straw was the stimulus vote," Navarro said. "I think Charlie has greatly misjudged the incredible damage of his fawning support of the stimulus package."
And the big guns weigh in:
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), talking to a local TV reporter this weekend, said that "diehard Republicans are still mad at Charlie."
And Ros-Lehtinen, as much of a power broker as she is, is nothing compared to the guy waiting in the wings, Jeb Bush:
Ros-Lehtinen, who, like Rubio, is a Cuban-American from the Miami area, also suggested Bush could get behind Rubio.
"If Jeb says to Marco, ‘I will bring the dollars with me,’ then I’d say maybe Marco will run against Charlie," Ros-Lehtinen told WTVJ-TV before Rubio’s announcement.
Rubio's very much the underdog in the GOP primary, but there's a strong anti-Crist sentiment in the GOP's conservative base.
And as the GOP continues to sink back into the depths of irrelevance, the conservative base is only gaining more power within the party by the day.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/6/728478/-FL-Sen:-Conservative-Base-Looking-To-Sink-Crist
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